When did you purchase your Thunderbolt

[Beardface]

What do you do on the phone, are you in a 4G area, and if so, do you have it activated? After all that, what is your average battery life.

I ask these, because it seems like a lot of the problems are coming from people who got the phone right when it came out. Personally, I just got mine a week ago today, and I'm not seeing the battery problems that others are complaining about...

When did I purchase: April 5
What do I do with the device: No big gaming. Mostly answering emails & texts. I'm on Google Talk all day with my girlfriend. I do play Andoku a lot, and have been listening a bit to the big collection of songs I have on there.
Do I live in 4G and have it active: No... will not get 4G til this summer.
Average Battery Life: 21:01

I'm hoping by asking these and getting enough responses, we might be able to see some kind of trends toward those who are seeing problems and those who are not. Is it possible that HTC has addressed some of the battery problems with the newer phones that are out now? Could it be that LTE is buggy or is just simply that much of a drain?

 

[FrellingFrakker]

I got mine on 3/23 or 3/24 and my battery life is great. I'm not rooted and I would say it gets moderate use (3 - 10 calls a day, 20 - 30 minutes of Angry Birds, Solitaire or other games, anywhere from 5 minutes - hour of surfing in a day, several sent and read emails, google sync turned on, weather sync every 6 hours). On a normal day I unplug my TBolt at around 7:30AM and so far it has never died before I plug it back in around 10:30 - 11pm. Now, I will say that 4G seems to drain the battery faster. I'm in an area with great 4G coverage but I use Phone Info to keep it on 3G unless I need to use 4G and I'm always on Wi-Fi weeknights at home. I have had 4G on for 2 or 3 hours at a time though and the battery drained faster but not to the extent that some have said. I haven't watched YouTube on 4g for 3 hours straight or anything, but I would expect that to kill the battery and don't call that normal use.

 

[cpjr]

Bought (well ordered online) day of release.

My company/business and personal phone. Used ALOT.

3G and 4G coverage about 1/3 of the time.

Rooted, ROM'ed, Overclocked and average anywhere from 10-15 hours.

 

[Crazed_Z06]

When did I purchase: March 19
What do I do with the device: Email, text, a few voice calls, use aps
Do I live in 4G and have it active: Yes. San Diego. 4G coverage everywhere. Always have it on.
Average Battery Life: ~6-7hrs maybe

 

[Blacksheep427]

I purchased my ThunderBolt 3/25/11 when I switched to Verizon from T-Mobile. I switched mainly due to the possible AT&T buy-out.

I use my phone to get e-mail, internet access, calendar reminders, sync to Google account, texts and phone calls, not very much into phone/gaming-few occasions I try one out for a few minutes, but that's about it.

I like the Android OS very well. My last phone was also an HTC, an HD2 USA version on T-Mobile's network. It had Windows Mobile 6.5 OS, which I grew to like mainly because of the phone itself. But, when it comes to Android 2.2.1 like on the ThunderBolt, it is much easier to use and add apps, IMO.

As some say, the battery is not strong on life, but neither was my HD2 when I first bought it. It took about 2 months and an OTA update before battery life improved. I think it will be the same on the ThunderBolt. Have 3G at home county, but no 4G yet. I use LTE OnOff app to switch off 4G to save battery. 4G will be coming to Hagerstown, MD this year, so reports say. That is 8 miles to my South. I have zero regrets on the purchase. My Nite Ize case from the HD2 fits perfectly BTW.

 

[PatLTrent]

Two days ago

I'm really new. Bought my Thunderbolt 2 days ago. Love it!

 

[Larry_ThaGr81]

I came from a OG and I don't think the battery life gets much worst with the overclocking of the CPU that it was for me. So the battery life wasn't a issue for me when switching to the Thunderbolt. However, I do notice that the battery life is considerably less than my wife's Droid X, but it still fine for me. My only gripe is the low capacity battery that a phone of this magnitude would come with.

When did I purchase: March 17 (release date), first customer at store opening
What do I do with the device: I basically use it as if I'm still on my OG, lite text messaging, calling, occasional web browsing, etc
Do I live in 4G and have it active: No I'm not expecting it until sometime in the second half of 2012
Average Battery Life: Don't actually monitor anymore as I did the first few days, but I can go for more than 24 hours on a single charge. I charge my phone once a day

This is by far the fastest phone that I've ever seen. I played with all the high end phones like the Evo 4G, Droid X, Droid 2, Fascinate, etc and this phone is noticeably faster at everyday task than any of those phones. I think the negative reviews regarding the battery life stem from factors like the low capacity battery and the fact that HTC has managed to squeeze every single MHz possible out of the processor. Could they have done a better job in terms of power management, I won't know until some of these other 4G phones come out. I'll have to keep in mind that most of them, if not all of them will have larger capacity batteries onboard.

 

[Kennygerms]

I got my bolt at the end of march. This area is always 4G coverage too and I always leave it on. Initially my battery life was 4 to 4.5 hours. Got extended battery and I was averaging about 9 hours. Rooted and flashed das bamf 1.4. Since then I get an average id say of 20 hours. Longest i've made it is 28 hours so far. I txt nonstop, occasional mail, lots of words with friends, and I Skype for a good hour a day. 3 email accounts set on 30 min updates and I always got Skype and yahoo running in the background 24/7.

I was originally unhappy but this is perfect now. I never worry about running out of battery. In fact I'm even considering trying the stock battery again.

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums

 

[cholulagirl]

ack is this normal?!!

I just bought my thunderbolt on Monday the 18th. It is only holding a charge for 3-4 hours!! is this normal? I knew the battery life was an "issue" but this seems crazy to me. I am not a gamer, I am an attorney and use the phone primarily for email/texting, very little actual internet surfing (maybe click on a few links per day) and maybe 30 minutes of words with friends per day or something while I'm on the bus commute to work. I really, really love this phone and how much easier it makes working outside the office, but I had to drive to a meeting a few hours away the other day and the phone totally died on my way back from the meeting while I was stuck in traffic. Very frustrating as I really "need" a reliable, fast, AMAZING phone like this one for my job, but I definitely need the charge to last longer than a few hours, especially when I am traveling. Any input would be greatly appreciated, I am going through right now changing all of my settings as suggested elsewhere on these forums in the hope that I can keep it holding a charge longer, but I would really like some feedback on whether maybe I just got a lemon here...am wondering if I should just return to the store and swap out for a different thunderbolt, or just go with the iPhone (shudder)...thanks!!

 

[cholulagirl]

I forgot to add...

I am in a 4g area probably about a 1/3 of the time, 3g the rest (denver metro).

 

[Kennygerms]

I really feel that until they maybe release an update with better battery life, the only way you will experience it is to root and either install setcpu to underclock your phone when the screen is dim, or to flash a Rom with a governor and that is undervolted. I also downloaded LTE on/off app and set my phone to 3g. I only turn 4G on if I need to download or if I want to Skype now. This is getting me about 40 hours of life on my extended battery.

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums

 

[Blacksheep427]

I am in a 4g area probably about a 1/3 of the time, 3g the rest (denver metro).

Just a friendly reminder: batteries tend to get more efficient after a few charge/discharge cycles. Give it a few days before returning. You may also buy a spare battery if you cannot risk running out of battery. And of course, you can charge it while in office, car, etc. I had an HD2 and now the ThunderBolt (2 differing cell providers). Both experienced weak battery only to get better, as I stated at the beginning. Still, it's your choice to keep or not. Oh, and they do have 2 sizes on extended batteries for replacement as well. I know that does not do away with HTC not putting large battery in it from the start.

 

[drdumont]

Blacksheep 427 is spot on.

Bought mine 2nd day of release. 4 hours batt max. Once I learned about shutting functions off, etc, (my first Android device), I had better luck. Bought extended life (big bulge) battery, had even better luck. Then realized that batts had been sitting since day of manufacture and began deep discharge/full charge cycle. After three days, batt life is now stable. About 24-36 hours standby once the batteries came to life. With a little thought to turning off unused functions (Bluetooth, GPS, etc), I can live with recharging every night.
Oh yes, had to cut out the back of the hard rubber cover to accommodate big battery. but works fine. Keep it in Tools For Stagecraft belt holder I used for Treo. Never pops off belt, good weather protection. 818 707 2656. Don't work for 'em, just the best belt holder ever, bar none.

 

[Z06_Mir]

Purchase date: Release date (March 24th?)
What I do: Lots of games and internet usage (4-8 hours per day I would say), a few phone calls, solid amount of texts
Average life: 10-24 hours. Depends on how many phone calls I make and how many games I play.
Data area: 4G almost always. When on the outskirts of the city 3G is possible.